HOLLAND -- For 14 weeks, Cheryl Chidester was a road warrior, looking to unearth points of interest along an 86-year-old West Michigan route.

She stayed for a week or two at bed-and-breakfasts, visiting art galleries and museums and checking out locales and history.

Her guide was the West Michigan Pike, a meandering 400-mile route hugging Lake Michigan's shoreline from the Indiana border near New Buffalo to Mackinaw City.

The road's early 20th-century roots date to when the automobile was just starting to put people on the road.

"There's a lot of architectural signage -- food stands and bowling alleys, things that were big tourist attractions back in the heyday," said Chidester, an architectural historian with Jackson engineering firm Commonwealth Associates Inc.

The Pike became history only four years after its 1922 completion, becoming part of the federal highway system in 1926. It was redesignated U.S. 31, which has since become mostly freeway.

But U.S. 31's forerunner could see a revival.

The Michigan Department of Transportation is being urged to designate U.S. 31 as a state heritage route. Behind the effort are the Michigan Historical Center and the Michigan Beachtowns Partnership of nine tourism bureaus, including Holland, Grand Haven-Spring Lake, Saugatuck-Douglas and South Haven.

Chidester and three other Eastern Michigan University graduate students who interned with the Michigan Historical Center are rediscovering the Pike's historical and recreational aspects. Their work was funded by a $160,000 federal Preserve America Grant and a $50,000 matching grant from the Michigan Council of the Arts and Cultural Affairs.

If Old U.S. 131 were designated as the state's 15th -- and longest -- heritage route, then roads, bridges and buildings within 10 miles of it would get priority for state grants, said Pete Hanses, who heads MDOT's heritage route program.

The Pike's appeal is as much heritage as scenery. For instance, traversing it between Holland and Saugatuck reveals few scenic views beyond stately homes on Lake Macatawa along South Shore Drive.

The Pike's foundations come from simpler days, back when lakeshore communities relied more on tourism to bring in revenue.

When the West Michigan Lake Shore Highway Association, later renamed the West Michigan Pike Association, formed, its focus was to build a road to bring automobiles and tourists from Chicago and northern Indiana to Lake Michigan's sandy beaches, said state preservation planner Amy Arnold.

Creation of the Pike, which had the slogan "Lake Shore All the Way," took nearly a decade.

The road helped bring ethnic diversity and working-class resorts to West Michigan. It opened up previously inaccessible sand dunes and lake views, helping bring development of eight state parks before 1930.

Chidester toured the Pike from New Buffalo to Ludington. She believes the best views are near Whitehall.

While the Pike's lore might elicit visions of lonely byways, the road had its share of congestion, said Felicia Fairchild, executive director of the Saugatuck-Douglas Convention & Visitors Bureau. She recalls an old hotel sign boasting a location "away from the noise of the Pike."

Hanses said gaining heritage-route status can take up to seven years. But Fairchild hopes this fall to present MDOT with detailed plans for the route.
Those good old days' haunts could become an attraction again.

"If we could end up with a Route 66 that would take people through Agnew and through Glenn, that would be really cool," said Sally Laukitis, executive director of the Holland Convention & Visitors Bureau.